Video game company Valve has only seen a small decrease in skins betting on its game Counter Strike: Global Offensive since it moved to shut down the largely unregulated sites using its Steam software.
The company sent cease and desist letters to 23 sites saying they were violating the company’s terms of service and demanding they stop taking skins bets. But Bloomberg News reports that two of the largest sites have still been taking bets.
According to Bloomberg, one of the biggest betting hubs, CSGOLounge, has seen more than $13.2 million worth of virtual goods bet since valve sent its letters.
However, gambling monitor Genius Sports told the news service that the average amount of money bet on each game is down about 25 percent.
The move came after several scandals involving popular players of the game surfaced and as concern has grown that skins betting is a growing, unregulated form of online betting.
Skins are virtual tools and weapons used in the game that can be traded on Valve’s software. Since many items are rare and difficult to acquire, they have developed a monetary value among players. It’s been estimated that players—many of which are underage—could trade up to $7.4 billion on the game this year, well ahead of other eSports books.
Since Valve’s stance, some betting sites have shutdown, including CSGOCasino and CSGOFast, while others, like CSGOBig and CSGOCrash said they intended remain in business with a new model that meets Valve’s demands, Bloomberg reported.
“In-game digital items is a $20 billion global business. That is not going away,” Artur Minacov, co-founder of OPSkins, another betting site told Bloomberg.
Valve is also facing two potential class action lawsuits brought by people who say they’ve lost money gambling with skins.
Valve is seeking to have one of the cases moved from Connecticut to Washington state. Valve also said it has no business relationship with the sites and that they misuse the company’s software, Bloomberg reported.
Also, Amazon’s Twitch.tv – a major online streaming website – announced it would no longer allow players to promote or play on the skins sites using its service. The service is seen as a valuable marketing stream for these sites, and a source of income for many e-sports personalities, Bloomberg said.
